Archers do themselves proud

The Laurencekirk archery club welcomed a two day national archery tournament to the old Mearns Academy playing fields.

Teams travelled from as far afield as the North of England to compete with some of the best archers in Scotland.

Mearns Archers, based at Mearns Academy Community Campus, hosted the Scottish Archery Association Northern Area Outdoor Championships on the threatened field on Saturday June 13. Competitors included ex-Scottish team member James Laing and Archery GB Development Squad member Curtis Hirst. Several Junior Archers achieved Scottish Record scores and Mearns Archer Fiona Hirst retained the recurve ladies titles for the second year running.

On Sunday, June 14, teams of archers from clubs throughout Scotland and Northern England joined forces to compete in the annual Pentangle Tournament. The Pentangle has been running since the 1960s and is contested by mixed teams from Northern, Eastern and Western Scotland, Durham and Cumbria. Archers shoot 144 arrows at distances ranging from 50 to 100 yards competing for the prestigious Martin Trophy.

Competitors shoot with traditional longbows as well as modern recurve and compound bows to scoop titles in each category. The Martin Trophy goes to the team with the highest overall score.

Mearns Archers, was delighted to be able to host such an important national tournament and welcomed archers to the old Mearns Academy playing field for the first and hopefully not last time.

Coaches from Links Archers based in Montrose began training Mearns Academy pupils in 2011 with a number becoming Scottish Champions in their age groups. In 2013, the club was opened up to adult members and has grown significantly over the last 2 years.

Mearns Archers Coach and Club Founder Alan Wood has competed, coached and organised events at the highest level in the sport.

He said “This weekend gave Mearns an amazing opportunity as a young club to make their name in national archery and show off some of our homegrown talent.

“It wouldn’t have been possible to host a tournament of this size on the new school pitch so it is vital that this resource is retained for the benefit of archers in the north east of Scotland and beyond.”

Paul MacGregor President of Scottish Archery Association Northern Area said: “The sport is growing in popularity and we’ve moved the SAA Northern Area Outdoor Championships from Banchory to Mearns this year as the Mearns pitch has greater capacity.

“We are considering making Mearns the permanent county tournament venue as the site here is superb.”